John Oti Bless
The actions and utterances of minister-designate John Oti Bless have caught up with him, hence the refusal of parliament to clear him for the deputy ministerial role, a ranking member of the privileges committee has said.
Parliament Thursday refused to approve the nomination of the Nkwanta North MP after he had been passed passed by the Appointments Committee of the House.
The House has decided to defer his approval following some disparaging comments he made about the chief justice Georgina Wood in a live radio discussion on Accra-based Montie FM.
In the audio, Oti Bless was heard scandalising the apex court, specifically the CJ, claiming she was manipulating the Bench for political gains.
“Today we have a CJ who because of a Political favour done her, will do anything to help the NPP. It is an agenda. The electoral commission should stop working and give it to Georgina Woode. Why? Meddling in the affairs of the Electoral Commission. And we have a whole CJ, look at how old you are; you have kids and grandchildren and yet you are at the Court doing politics; you deliberately appoint NPP Judges to do politics and scheme with NPP to give biased rulings. Are you not calling for war? Are you not calling for civil war? Are you not destroying this country?” he said when he appeared on the ‘Pampaso’ political show on June 24.
He continued: “We have to watch this Chief Justice. My brother Mugabe, I am telling you, when you go to the Supreme Court today, the Chief Justice is fighting one worker all because of politics. Let me give you a last filla. Do you know that during the Election Petition case, these people made a plot to kidnap a child of Tony Lithur, who was lawyer for our Excellency John Mahama so he would not concentrate on the case?”.
Commenting on the matter, Nana Amoako told Joy FM, the move by parliament shows that the House is able to discipline its own.
“What he said or did has caught up with him…this action shows that it is not only outsiders that are hauled before the House, we are fair and we treat everyone fairly. He was not approved because of the issues surrounding him. And the issue will only be looked up again after we return in September,” he said.
Meanwhile, the deputy Eastern regional minister-designate Joseph Tetteh Angmor and Emmanuel Bombande who is heading to the foreign affairs ministry have been cleared by the House. Parliament is currently on recess and will resume September.
-starrfmonline